Big Picture Show

Ex Machina (2015)

Caleb Smith, a programmer at an internet-search giant, wins a competition to spend a week at the private mountain estate of the company's brilliant and reclusive CEO, Nathan Bateman. Upon his arrival, Caleb learns that Nathan has chosen him to be the human component in a Turing Test; charging him with evaluating the capabilities, and ultimately the consciousness, of Nathan's latest experiment in artificial intelligence. That experiment is Ava, a breathtaking A.I. robot whose emotional intelligence proves more sophisticated - and more deceptive - than the two men could have imagined.

THE GUARDIAN’S MARK KERMODE SAYS: “Key to the film’s success is a trio of impressively nuanced performances that keep us constantly guessing as to each character’s true motivations.”